Don't be surprised if this turns out to be a real project some university students and a prof have come up with. After being involved for 10 years with the SAE Aerodesign and listening to what these people come up with nothing would surprise me. They do not consider the limitations or ramnifications of what they might suggest. I have seen designs that suggest the safest spot to observe an attempt at flight would be in your car or under something with a strong roof. It is not unusual to have a thousand plus at one of their events and they are lifting attempting to lift weights where they reach the max allowed 55 lbs and the design has never been test flown before the competition. There are autonomous flight competitions where a modified helicopter is used to take off and complete several tasks and return to base. The carnage is unbelivable you never know when the model is going to take on a life of its own. Its not within the scope of modeling when the requirments are outside the rules we are expected to operate our models under. There are plenty of resources out there that will offer assistance so its a good call to pass on this.

there are resources on-line to make that happen, I happen to be researching uav techology right now. First thing, with something that large, and with such long range, you better know how to fly full size as to under the faa controlled air space which you want operate in.

Dennis I participated this year in the SAE Aerodesign East as a pilot for one of the teams. Even though the faculty adviser is a long time r/c competitor he asked me to come along and push the sticks. Your'e right, most of the flying machines that showed up had never flown or flown only once or twice. I was impressed with what some of these teams came up with and how different their outlook is compared to the people around here. I was also surprised at which ones were stable enough to fly. I'd have bet a few of them would never make it off the ground. Several didn't. Still, there were nearly 50 teams from all over the world and well over 400 people participating. The OP's request, viewed from that perspective doesn't strike me as all that odd. He may have no idea what he is getting into and no one local to get him started. I have to agree it could easily be something else but dismissing it out of hand may not be the most helpful response. I'd want to know more about the guy first but it might be worthwhile. I'm about to post a similar request on autopilots for an ag project I've been approached about.

Last year, I once came across an abandoned pretty big multicopter...
Turns out its Arduino system had a hiccough and tried to fly into the guy's face. Miraculously, only his wrist was cut up. So he managed to walk to his neighbor's house to wait for the ambulance. He didn't want to go home because he didn't want his kids to see him with all that blood.